Can my MBP drive a 4K monitor?

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Level 1

11 points

Can my MBP drive a 4K monitor?

Hello

I have an April 2010 15" MBP. While I realise this machine won't optimally drive a 4K monitor, I will upgrade it in about a year and I need to buy a new monitor now. I am about to start doing a lot of photo editing, so want a really good monitor for the long haul (such as Dell UP2414Q). But will my current machine drive such a monitor at all, as an interim arrangement? My MBP has a Mini DP, 2.66Ghz Intel i7, 4 GD RAM, 128GB PCIE SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M (512MB).

I'm told I can upgrade to the latest version of Mavericks - will this help (currently running 10.6.8 and nervous about upgrading to Mavericks due to concerns about whether my machine will run well on it)?

Many thanks

Peter

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jun 11, 2014 11:34 PM

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Answer 1

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Melophage

Level 5

7,213 points

Jun 12, 2014 12:07 AM in response to Pduncanj

Peter,

the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M’s maximum digital resolution is 2560 × 1600, and its maximum VGA (analog) resolution is 2048 × 1536.

Upgrading to Mavericks (or any other version of OS X) will not increase those maximum resolutions — they’re limits of that GPU.

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Answer 2

Pduncanj Author

Level 1

11 points

Jun 12, 2014 2:06 PM in response to Melophage

Hi Melophage

thanks a lot for your clear and helpful reply. Does this mean that a 4K monitor simply won't work with my current MBP, or will it just work at a lower resolution?

Also, do you have any view / experience with upgrading an older MBP like mine to Mavericks?

Thanks again

Peter

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Answer 3

Melophage

Level 5

7,213 points

Jun 13, 2014 12:13 AM in response to Pduncanj

Peter,

a 4K monitor would work with your MacBook Pro at a lower resolution, e.g. at 2560 × 1600 via your MacBook Pro’s Mini DisplayPort.

I have a 13-inch Mid 2010 MacBook Pro myself, and it’s running Mavericks. What I did was to purchase a SSD for it, and I’d installed Mavericks onto the SSD; I then removed its HDD (with Snow Leopard still on it) and put it into an external enclosure with a FireWire 800 port, and put the SSD into the MacBook Pro. When I need to, I can connect the HDD to the MacBook Pro’s FireWire 800 port and boot into Snow Leopard via Startup Manager, but most of the time I boot from the now-internal SSD into Mavericks.

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Answer 4

benwiggy

Level 4

1,473 points

Jun 13, 2014 12:53 AM in response to Pduncanj

I've upgraded several MBPs to Mavericks. They all run much better on it, and battery life is considerably improved.

The problems you'll see reported are usually due to incompatible third-party software.

More RAM will never hurt, of course.

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Answer 5

check-t

Level 1

8 points

May 21, 2016 5:09 AM in response to Pduncanj

Hi there,

old Post but I have to reply. Yesterday i just tried for fun with my old MBP mid 2010 with GF 330m. It just worked natively connected by displayport @4k/30Hz as a second Monitor to my 1680*1050 screen.

regards

Tobias

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